Funding for home adaptation.

[Herja]

My DM has been given confirmation of leg amputation. Obviously this will mean major adaptations to her home... she has around 5k in savings, which won't come close. She is working full time and struggling mentally with the operation (and is obviously very ill) so I have offered to look in to funding for her.

So far, everything I can find needs her to already be missing the leg, to secure funding. But she can't have the operation if she can't go home...

She has a bone infection which is spreading and not responding to operation and treatment. The longer the operation is delayed, the more of the leg she will lose, no we need to be able to do the house fast. Is there something obvious with grants/funding I am missing? I've only just begun to looking to this, so I'm hoping there is.

Anyone?

Talk to adult services at your local council. Normally they will fund this type of work.

Whether they will fund will depend on what needs to be done, who else lives in house, her income and equity in her home. Typically they will pay for ramps, stairlifts, widening doorways and downstairs wet rooms but rarely through floor lifts. They will make a judgement if moving is a far better option too, possibly helping to secure council accommodation.

Adult social care assess for this type of thing in my area (when people are at home) but I am unsure if there is another route, through the hospital, after having major surgery.

Maybe call your local council Adult social care and ask about the OT service and explain the situation. They’ll be able to tell you who beat to contact for an assessment in this situation.

Thank you! Should I go directly to adult social care, or should I go to that via the council?

I think she earns around 40k, just under now due to covid pay cuts (her industry has been decimated), with 5k in savings. She lives with my 18 year old brother, who is now unemployed, but typically earns around 1k a month. Not sure about house equity, but there's 10 years left on the mortgage and the house is a cheap ex council one, so I'd imagine not huge amounts.

She is resigned to just not going upstairs again, but will definitely need lots of ramps to get in as the house is on a tricky gradient. Ideally a wet room, but I think she'd rather wash in a bucket than give up the house. She's had a very hard life and it's something she's incredibly proud of.

The hospital have offered an assessment for home needs, but only after the amputation. But she can't HAVE the operation without the adaptations, so it's a bit of an impossible solution.

You need to call Social services today, speak to the Duty Officer and put in an urgent referral to Adult Services.

They will allocate you a coordinator who will assess your mum. Usually an Occupational Therapist, They can help by assessing her needs, making practical suggestions and if adaptation is needed , referring on to the Council who hold a budget for adaptation.

The OT then puts in recommendations according to need and function, possibly with a drawn up plan. Then has a site meeting with the Council.

The financial papers are filled in and eligibility and contributions are calculated.

The OT then oversees the work.

This was the way it was done when I worked for them back in the day.

Sorry to hear your mum is going through this, it must be an awful lot to take in for you all. I think you need to take it one step at time at the moment and focus on helping her through the operation and in the initial return home.
I'm an OT who has worked with lots of amputees at various points of their rehab- a lot of them have reached really great levels of independence and mobility, particularly if they are quite young as your mum presumably is if she's still working.
Rehab post amputation is a long process and beginning to look at prosthesis doesn't happen until the wound has fully healed a few months down the line and will also depend on what point they amputate from.
Initally the hospital therapists will work with her on transferring only (either using a board to slide along or standing and pivoting) from bed- a chair or wheelchair rather than trying to hop anywhere as this can reset your centre of balance and cause issues later down the line with prosthesis which is generally the end goal.
So you're looking at her coming home initally restricted to a wheelchair inside, potentially within what we would call a 'micro environment' so a smaller space that is set up for her at home with a bed and commode and support with activities at home if needed.
The kind of large adaptations that you're talking about may well need to happen later down the line but they do not need to and will not happen before she leaves hospital, due to the time scales involved (organising funding and the work will take months) and also because at this point nobody knows what point she will reach with her rehab and what adaptations she will need. It is entirely possible that in months to come she will manage to go up and down steps with a prosthesis for example. The local authority will not consider assisting with funding until they consider her needs to be static and long term.
The hospital therapy team will work out how she will get into the property intially on discharge (may involve being carried up in a carrychair by hospital transport) and refer on for ongoing rehab in the community- ideally with a specialist amputee service in your area.

You should also apply for personal independence payment via the DWP. it’s not a means tested benefit and will help with her care.

Thank you @NamelessNinja. That's helpful, but sad. She has spoken to an OT at the hospital, who explained she would be needing to stay in a wheelchair for a minimum of 8 weeks after. It's a through the knee amputation (hopefully. Though if not done soon, and she keeps being pushed back down the list, it will be above the knee).

The layout of her home means she will have to be restricted to one room with a commode for the whole of this time in this case. Which just is what it is really, but still sad none the less.

I will try phoning social services just in case anything can be done. Sounds like it's just going to be an unrelentingly horrific few months though.

I am an OT who assess for just this sort of thing. As a PP has said it won’t be done for the time your mum is discharged from hospital. It may take many months.

The process is normally that an OT from adult social care (normally the county council) will undertake an assessment and make recommendations as outlined above. A referral is then made for a Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG). This grant is up to a max of around £30k and is means tested. This is administered by the District Council - the people who collect council tax etc. Sometimes they are one in the same!

Often if people are working they are not entitled to a DFG or get a very limited amount but it would obviously depend on your mum’s particular circumstances. If this is the case the OT can still support your mum with equipment, smaller adaptations and advise her on self funding any bigger adaptations.